Abstract
VIEWS differ regarding the best method of presenting the facts and theories of chemistry to a beginner. Prof. Ostwald takes the view that u if the present-day chemistry makes greater demands on the power of rational thinking, it also renders the purely memory work of mastering the subject considerably more easy for the student. The growth of the scientific interpretation and elucidation of the separate facts of chemistry facilitates in the highest degree the impression of them on the mind and their application, and at the same time affords an incomparably greater intellectual enjoyment than the study of the older, essentially descriptive, chemistry could offer. Acting on this opinion, Ostwald has introduced physical theories, applicable to chemical facts, “in his stride,” as it were. Beginning with some simple metaphysical statements, he develops the fundamental laws of classification and treats of homogeneous substances, mixtures and solutions; he next proceeds to consider the law of the conservation of weight and mass, and of work and energy, treating incidentally of the units in which these magnitudes are measured. The next chapter is devoted to “combustion,” the existence of oxygen and the constancy of proportions; and the next to a rapid survey of the elements and their properties. The subsequent treatment is, in a restricted sense, systematic; the remaining chapters treat of oxygen, ozone, hydrogen, water, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine and hydrochloric acid, oxides of chlorine; bromine, iodine and fluorine, sulphur and its compounds, and, in short, the elements generally termed non-metals and their compounds; the metals and their salts complete the list.
The Principles of Inorganic Chemistry.
By Wilhelm Ostwald. Translated by Alexander Findlay. Pp. xxvii + 785. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.), Price 18s. net.
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R., W. The Principles of Inorganic Chemistry . Nature 67, 171 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/067171a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/067171a0